The Beginning Of The Dream
by gavingrantgavin
Summary: Our heroes failed and the Moon Eye Plan has succeeded!... or has it? The story kicks off as Madara's plan doesn't quite go like he wanted it to.
1. The Beginning of the Dream

Uchiha Madara gets his other rinnegan and the dreadful eye on his forehead finally opens. It's the beginning of the dream.

A blinding flash. The last thing Uchiha Madara sees after reality disappears from his sight is the scared faces of Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, his greatest obstacles –"but not anymore", Madara had time to think with perverse glee. On the sky, he saw the moon, shinning red, and reflected on its surface was a rinnegan, three tomoe in each concentric of its circles. In this instant, though Madara couldn't see it because of the light that seemed to swallow everything, every shinobi in the alliance fell as if they had suddenly been stricken dead and were immediately enveloped by branches protruding from the ground. After the branches had done their job, the battlefield looked like the breeding ground of nightmarish giant butterflies.

"Kakashi-sensei!", Naruto screamed after seeing Madara rip out his sharingan. He could feel the other Madara close-by, but ignored him for the time being and ran to Kakashi's side. He cursed himself as he ran; even with all the power he had gained after meeting the old man who talked weird, he still let one his friends get hurt. Naruto couldn't help but think of Neji. "No, I can't think like that anymore", he thought shaking his head to make the thought go away. When he made it to where Kakashi was, Gai-sensei was tending to him as he could not being a medic shinobi. "How is he?", Naruto asked impatiently. If Kakashi's life was in danger with his new powers maybe he could…

"Don't, Naruto, you have to focus on the battle", Gai said guessing his thoughts, "have to focus on the battle. Seeing as Naruto didn't start to move Gai smiled and said: "We've been through worse, Kakashi and I, his youth still isn't over!".

Naruto felt a little more at ease about Kakashi's injuries, but now he worried about Sasuke. He had managed to jump behind Madara as he activade Kamui and was gone– not even Naruto could feel his presence in the other dimension. "I wonder what's happening in there…", Naruto said staring into the space where Madara and Sasuke had disappeared. Sasuke had also gained new powers from the strange old man he met when he thought he was dead, but Obito and Sakura were also there and who knew what Madara could pull from under his sleeve.

"He'll be fine, Naruto", Kakashi said through his ragged breath, "you should know it better than anyone". After saying this he fell silent; he was unconscious. Naruto knew he was right, however, it wasn't only Sasuke physical health that worried him, but also what Madara could tell him to try to sway him back to his destructive path of revenge. Like Madara, Naruto, too, felt a strange connection between the two that went beyond their bloodline and now he understood it was Indra's chakra that connected them.

Suddenly, as Naruto continued to think about what could be going on in the other dimension, a swirl –that Naruto instantly recognized as Kamui– appeared on the air… no, it was actually two swirls: from one of them Madara's upper body appeared (looking severely injured) and from the other appeared Sasuke, Sakura and Obito. Naruto felt relieved until he noticed two things different in Obito. "Sasuke, what happened to that black thing that was stuck to Obito before and his… eye?". Sasuke didn't respond and Naruto notice his face contracted into a rictus of anger. "Sasuke!"

"Shut up!", Sasuke said without meeting Naruto's eyes. "When I saved Sakura, he managed to get to Obito and took his eye, then I destroyed the zetsu and we came back after Madara". He pulled out his sword and surrounded it with his lightning element. "We have to defeat him before he can implant his other eye and activate the genjutsu. Let's go, Naruto!"

"Yeah!". Then Naruto and Sasuke ran towards Madara and full speed– without his sharingan Kakashi couldn't follow them and Gai was amazed they could move at a speed that he could only reach in the 8th gate so easily; yet, they were too late. Madara –now standing as he had joined with his lower half quickly after coming out of other dimension thanks to his mokuton– implanted the rinnegan into his eye socket, replacing the sharingan stolen from Kakashi as quickly as he had took it, and Naruto and Sasuke who were just inches away from impacting Madara, one with chidori and the other with the jiton rasengan; were immediately buffeted and sent flying by an incredibly strong shockwave –Naruto was reminded of his fight with Nagato– and landed as well as they could, in other words, quite badly. They got up and stared at their enemy: Uchiha Madara stood surrounded by a misty white glow, his eyes instead of the typical rinnegan pattern were now milky white (much like a byakugan), and on his forehead, his headband was cracked and when it fell it revealed a horizontal slit. "What's… that?", started Naruto, though he already knew what it was. The old man had shown him his mother. "Kaguya", Naruto said.

"Yes, I've succeeded", Madara said, the strange glow that surrounded him becoming brighter and brighter. The eye on his forehead opened slowly. "Huh? You don't look too happy, Naruto, Sasuke, be glad, we're going to a world of winners! A war as bloody and with so much death as this one will never happen again. We're leaving hellish reality and going to the world that should be!", Madara laughed maniacally , drunk with success. By this time, the rinnegan on his forehead was completely open. Naruto and Sasuke reacted immediately to it, almost as if by instinct; Madara only laughed. "Too late", he said, and as if commanded by his voice the wind that had been blowing over the battlefield seemed to stop, the whole world seemed to stop. And on the moon the rinnegan appeared. It was the culmination of the Moon Eye Plan, Madara's life-long plan, the plan he had his life for. It was finally complete, though there were forces involved that Madara did not foresee and that would introduce equally unforeseen flaws in his otherwise perfect world.

Of course, even in the face of imminent defeat, the Will of Fire still burned with full force in Uzumaki Naruto's heart and, therefore, he prepared to attack once more. However, as everything else, he also seemed to have frozen, his strength leaving him and a sudden slumber making his eyelids feel heavy. He looked at Sasuke and saw that he was the same–many shinobi of the Alliance had already fallen and were being enveloped by the tree roots. With his remaining strength he managed to catch another glimpse of Madara–the light surrounding him so bright now, he could barely be seen through it, and after that he, the last man standing, also fell.

And like that, the world ended.

A blinding light. But this time, instead of white it looks yellow and Madara feels hot, some kind of liquid rolling down his cheeks. He opens his eyes and notices he's no longer in the battlefield and the light shining on his eyes is not coming from his body, but from the sun high in the sky and the liquid on his cheeks is his sweat. "Is this the Dream World?", he asks to no one, looking around. The landscape around him is barren: there are a few trees standing, but most of them are fallen and dry; the land was dry and unfertile, dominated by giant boulders that seemed to have been carelessly thrown were they lay. Although it was sunny, the land still somehow looked dark. "Is this the Dream World?", he asked again to no one. If he was the caster of the genjutsu, why did such a landscape exist? Who would dream this? Despite being the caster, Madara felt nothing special. He didn't feel like he could change things–actually he felt even weaker, as if something integral to his being was missing.

Trying to shake off his doubts, Madara walked; not quite knowing where he was heading. After a little while walking under the scorching sun, burning the soles of his feet –until now he hadn't realized he was barefoot– he came to a dried up riverbed. He crossed it and came to small patch of trees. Grateful for the shade, he sat beneath them when suddenly a voice came from up the branches of the tree he was laying beneath. "Hey, granpa, never seen you around, do you have a name?". The voice sounded calm, but Madara could detect hostility in it. "How could be sneak behind me without me noticing?", Madara thought looking up, trying to locate the owner of the voice. "You senile, granpa?", the voice coming from the trees said and laughed. Madara thout it was strange the man talking –who he was trying to locate still, with no avail– confused his white hair, gained after becoming a jinchuuruki, for an old man's–. Still, out of curiosity, he looked at his hands: they looked wrinkled and yellowed. He jumped in surprise at the sight of them. Another laugh came from the boughs. Madara then touched his face, it was also wrinkled. The final blow was when he looked down: instead of the white robe he had acquired after becoming the Juubi's jinchuuriki, his robe now was black. With horror, he realized he was back at square one.

"Ha! Granpa's lost it, you guys", the man laughed again, but this time a chorus of other laughs joined him. "Well, we could still use him as slave until he falls dead", as he said this he, and what had to be at least twenty other men, jumped down from the trees. The men's attire more resembled a samurai's than a ninja, though they were more simple and in worse condition. The men themselves were in no better state than their armor: a sickly complexion in general, bloodshot eyes and hair like straw. Madara had no mind for any of these details, he was still staring at his hands in disbelieve– how did this happen? He was the caster, so how? He finally turned to look at the group of men, one of the was weaving handsigns, but he really only guessed considering the man's hands were only a blur to his eyes, which confirmed the last of his fears: his eyes also had no power; his rinnegan was gone. "Hey, Asagami, you catch him", the man who had first spoken to Madara said. He seemed to be the boss.

The man named Asagami (the one weaving the handsigns) took a step towards Madara, made another handsign and said: "shadow binding jutsu!". Madara knew the jutsu and in another circumstance would simply have dodged it, but now he was powerless against it. The shadows from the trees joined his own and he was instantly paralyzed and at Asagami's mercy. The shadows then rose from the ground and started to coil around Madara's body, so tight that he trouble breathing. Madara realized they wanted to take him unconscious, but was unable to do anything about it. The shadow reached his neck and Madara fell his consciousness slipping a rain of a vast array of ninja weapons fell on Asagami, his boss and the rest of the men surrounding Madara. They all skillfully dodged them, but looked angered. "Damn, these guys again. Were they following us?", the boss of the group who attacked Madara said, clicking his tongue. "Too much work just for an senile old man…", the man whistled and in an instant his entire group was gone. Only Madara was left gasping for air.

The new group, his saviors, landed next to Madara. Madara's vision was still blurry, so he couldn't make out their appearance. When he could see, he lifted his eye and he saw it: in the distance, piercing the clouds, towering over even the highest mountains. It was the Shinju, the Holy Tree, the real form of the Juubi he absorbed. "Impossible…", Madara said, falling to the ground.


	2. Naruto and Sasuke's Dream

Uzumaki Naruto opens his eyes to see a ceiling that for a moment seems unknown to him. For an instant he feels lost.

"Ah, Naruto, you're up", says a female voice coming from his left and then with a hint of amused reproach, "about time, you sleepyhead". Naruto turns to look at her, still feeling half-asleep, and as the ceiling she looks unfamiliar. The first thing you noticed about her was her long red hair, flowing almost down to the floor. As Naruto started to drift off to sleep again, he felt the bed disappear under him and his body feeling weightless. The strong impact against a hard surface –Naruto later opened his eyes to see it was the wall, he had been sent flying off his bed. "Naruto, I said wake up! Do you think we came here to sleep all day long! Come on, get up and dress up, the jinchuuruki can't be late for the meeting. You and your father, ah, you two will mess up my nerves. Not ready yet, Naruto?", she had been walking around the room as she spoke and she turned around with a reproachful look on her face. Naruto thought it was ironic to be hastened by a woman who took an hour only to brush her hair.

"Wait, mom, don't turn around!", Naruto said dropping the clothes he was putting on to cover himself, which made trip with his pants that bunched up around his legs. He fell forwards, face first, butt up revealing his ramen themed underwear. His mother, Uzumaki Kushina, shook her head and looked at him with all the patience a mother can muster for his son and helped him up. Naruto finished dressing up looking downcast. "What a sad way to start the day", he thought.

A laugh came from the door to Naruto's room. It was Namikaze Minato, the Fourth Hokage, The Yellow Flash, and many other names, but most importantly: Naruto's father and personal hero. He was also Kushina's husband. Their meeting was quite fortuitous: Minato was at the time a jounin working under the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen who –died during an invasion by the Country of Fear around 16 years ago –which also happened to be the year Naruto was born– and had been commended with the task of taking news to Uzushiogakure concerning Konohagakure's wish to continue siding with the Ootsuki clan against the Country of Fear and it's allied villages, that was known were planning to overthrow the Ootsuki clan –then, and still now, rulers of the land. There, in Uzushiogakure, while meeting the leader of Uzumaki clan (the closest clan to the Ootsuki and their second in command, to which the Ootsuki clan delegated several of their functions), he saw her: a beautiful apparition which seemed to be dressed in a long red gown– it was her hair, the longest Minato had ever seen and it framed an even more beautiful face. Right then and there, kneeling in front of the leader of the Uzumaki clan, waiting for his reply to the Third Hokage's message; he knew he was in love and wanted to talk to her. She was the granddaughter of Uzumaki Mito, previous jinchuuruki, and therefore a very respected clan member. Kushina also happened to be quite sheltered, so Minato had to go through plenty of difficulties to finally get the clan's blessing to marry her. What he had to do won't be told in this story, it only needs to be said that Minato has only worked as hard for one other thing: the Hokage title.

In his typical amicable tone Minato told Kushina that she could've let Naruto sleep in for a little longer, the meeting was until a little later. Kushina at first seemed displeased, but as it often happened between, she got caught in Minato's pace and ended up conceding that maybe she could've.

Naruto finished getting dressed and the Uzumaki family made their way through the wide corridors of the Uzumaki HQ castle towards the Main Hall where the meeting was to be held. The castle was very luxurious: the doors of the many rooms in the castle were skillfully adorned with all kinds of different drawings, some of them with complex arabesques made entirely of spirals (the symbol of the clan), through the windows of the castle you could see, in the Main Garden (the lower parts of the castle were shaped like a half-square, so from at least one side of the castle all the windows had a sight to the main garden; towards the top it had the shape of tower), statues of past leaders and the Great Stone which gave testament of the Uzumaki being one of the first clans to acquire and master the gift of Ninshuu from the Ootsuki clan.

"Wow…", was all Naruto could say, taken aback by the sight of the castle. He had been in Uzushiogakure before, but that was years ago when his mother took him to meet her relatives. "So you left this place to go with dad?", asked Naruto looking at Kushina with his most mischievous face.

"Naruto!", Kushina reprimanded him. "I love your father very much, so when he said…" she suddenly stopped and covered her face, that had gotten as red as her hair.

"Hehehe, said what? Said what?," Naruto said running around Kushina. "You're face's so red, mom!", Naruto laughed.

"Naruto, don't tease your mother," Minato said, though he had always liked how pretty Kushina looked when she was embarrassed, "if you want to know I'll tell you. What I said was –and he pulled Kushina close to him– 'Kushina, even if I can't the life like the one you live here, I know I can make you happy and being with you would makes me, would make very very happy, so, please, would be my wife?'", Minato's face was getting red too as he said the last part.

"Ah, Minato!", Kushina suddenly hugged Minato, all the feelings of that moment coming back.

And Naruto regretting teasing his mother in the first place and looking for a way to interrupt his parents' sudden burst of romance, noticed that they were in front of big door with a spiral, much like the seal that kept the Kyuubi in his cage, where the doorknob would be. "Mom, dad, it's here, right?", he said as loudly as he could.

"Eh…? Ah, yes!", Kushina said quickly recomposing herself. She walked up to the door, put her hand against the spiral in the door and send chakra through it. Immediately the spiral folded itself disappearing a leaving the empty circle in which it was held. The door opened revealing a dimly lit room with only a large rectangular table in its midst. Sitting at each side of it were a grumpy looking group of old men: they were the council of the Uzumaki clan.

"Please come in and take a seat Fourth-dono", said the one sitting at the furthest end of the table. He was the clan leader.

The Uzumaki family took their seats– Minato at the opposite end of the table from the clan's leader and Naruto and Kushina at each side of him. Without wasting any more time on formalities, the meeting began.

Uchiha Sasuke was also in a clan meeting. He was too young to have a voice in the meeting, but after much begin his brother Itachi, he had been allowed to at least assist to it. The whole thing feels strangely surreal to him, but he quickly shakes off the feeling when the topic of the meeting is brought up.

"So, it's true then, the Country of Fear is really planning to attack again?", says a man in front row of the hall.

"Yes, that's what our intel says", said Fugaku. He had more to say, but as was his custom in meetings, he liked to leave the best for last.

"That's crazy!", jumps another man, "the Ootsuki clan alone is too powerful, and there's also the alliance. Not to mention they already failed once… then they went into hiding under the shade of that tree…".

"They had Kaguya-sama, then. However, she's gone now. Missing.", interrupted Itachi. "It's the best time to strike. What will we do, Father, will we follow that the Fourth's decides in the council in Uzushiogakure? Or…",

"Itachi! You can't mean… treason", said a man next to Itachi suddenly grabbing him grabbing by the shoulders . "I thought you were wise for your years, but your youth still makes you hasty…", the man let go of Itachi when Fugaku lifted his hand asking for silence.

"As usual, your insight is impressive, Itachi", he looked at Itachi only momentarily and the turned to look at all the people in the hall. "As you all know", started Fugaku, "we've been under rule of the Ootsuki clan. A clan to this day clad in complete mystery. Even their homeland is kept secret! A clan who rules not by respect and cooperation, but by force and fear. They wield a power which they do not share. Of course, it can't be denied that chakra was a great gift for all of us, but much of its secrets, they still keep to themselves. Much of you haven't seen it, but I can tell you that even creation of life, the power of gods, is not beyond the Ootsuki clan's abilities. What are we to them, but ants…? And the Fourth, he's just their puppet to keep us under their control", Fugaku finished.

Itachi made a move as if he wanted to say something else, but stopped –instead he simply stood there with a grave expression on his face.

There was unrest in the room. The Ootsuki weren't gods, but they were respected and feared as such. No one (except the already mentioned Country of Fear) dared to oppose them, and it was a complete mystery how they could do it. Even they had failed, so if anyone had planned to follow on their steps –no one was– that part of the story stopped them on their tracks. Despite knowing that, Fugaku's conjectures sounded sensible to the clan members. Finally, after much deliberation among the one's present in the meeting, someone voice the main question if a plan to overthrow the Ootsuki clan was to be carried on.

"Wait, Fugaku-sama", said another man shyly, "Kaguya-sama may be missing, but her son is almost as powerful as her, rebelling would be… and the alliance…".

"Hagoromo?", Fugaku scoffed. "He's strong, but naïve. He shared chakra with the world believing it would everlasting peace. Foolish! And his brother, more foolish than him, if such a thing is possible, went away looking to look for Kaguya. Regarding the alliance, without the fear of Kaguya-sama's power, swaying them won't be difficult", Fugaku stood up. "I think this is enough for now. It's a big decision; it would be hasty to make it in a single meeting."

And so the meeting ended.

Sasuke left the meeting feeling transfixed. From Itachi he knew of the tensions between the Uchiha and Konoha, and extension the Ootsuki clan, but seeing a war brewing right before his eyes felt surreal. The whole world did, actually. "Nii-san?" he said to Itachi who was walking next to him.

"Yes?", Itachi replied, the grave expression still on his face.

"Do you think we can really win… if we really go to war with Ootsuki and the Alliance?"

"It's not impossible, but a bad idea"

"Why?"

"Didn't I tell you about it before, Sasuke? Those who don't know their own capacity and overestimate themselves can only fail", he said this looking into the distance at the tree that towered over everything in this warped Shinobi World. "This world is crumbling", added Itachi almost in a whisper.

"Huh?, Sasuke asked, though he heard Itachi well. He was surprised by the sudden tone of regret in Itachi's voice. Sasuke couldn't deny Itachi's words: the current state of the world was like that of a wasteland with a few islands of life in the villages. "Why didn't you say anything at the meeting?", the question had been itching in his mind since he heard Itachi's true thoughts on the matter of betraying the Alliance.

"A single man can't change destiny. Keep your friends close, Sasuke", and with those words Itachi left him, probably to have a talk with Shisui as he often did when he felt troubled.

Sasuke stood where he was looking at the red moon in the sky and thinking of his teammates. For some reason he couldn't quite understand, he felt like seeing them was very important.

The meeting ended and Minato was terribly distressed. The state of the world kept worsening and now a war even greater than the one that had so badly torn the world, seemed imminent. The greatest deterrent against was missing and from the Ootsuki clan had come the order to "–summon the nine jinchuuruki", remarked with regret looking at Naruto.

"You don't need to worry about me, dad", said Naruto striking his hero pose, "I won't let the Kyuubi take over me and with all my friends next to me, and I can't lose!". Naruto was brimming with confidence– he almost seemed ready for a war to start right at that instant.

Minato simply shrugged. When Naruto got like that, there was no use arguing with him and even the threat of the Country of Fear seemed to look smaller than before. "Let's go then", Minato said, smiling. Naruto and Kushina took Minato's hand. When suddenly Naruto heard a voice that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once…

_Naruto!_

It was deep commanding voice. For a second Naruto thought it sounded like the Kyuubi's, but that was impossible –he could feel the Kyuubi asleep inside of him. Besides, the Kyuubi never called by his name: "damn brat" was his nickname for Naruto.

"Naruto?", Kushina was looking at him with a concerned face.

"Eh? I'm fine. Let's go dad".

Minato used hiraishin, and just like that, in an instant, the Uzumaki family was back in Konoha.


	3. Madara and the Dreamworld

_Come to me. _

_Come to me._

Madara woke up with a scream to find himself laying in a bed. He's whole body felt exhausted and his mind seemed to be working at half-speed. It took him minutes to process the room he was in: the window to the left of his bed, the low ceiling and to his right… a young girl.

The girl jumped the moment Madara's eyes fell on her, and then she ran to the door of the room and stormed out of the room. Not too long after she had left, she came back with an older man, tall and scrawny. _Who…?_, thought Madara whose mind was still working too slowly to think anything about this situation. "Good, good, you're awake. Can you tell your name?", the man said leaning close to him. "Oh, sorry, how rude of me, my name is Houichi, and this is my daughter Hana. She's very curious–she's been keeping watch of you since we found you in the forest".

"Uchiha… Madara", only a whisper through Madara's lips.

"Uchiha!", Houichi exclaimed, he looked visibly surprised. "I did think you looked like one of them, but an Uchiha here? You know, once I fought against the Uchiha –it was a humiliating defeat", Houichi laughed as if he were remembering a happy moment in his life. "I got tired from all the fighting and all the killing, so I left the battlefield, now I just want to… raise Hana –not an easy thing to do in these times. Ah, Sorry! I'm talking too much. I'll let you rest now, let's go Hana", Houichi got up and left the room, his daughter followed him, not without giving Madara another glance as she left.

Shortly after Houichi left Madara fell asleep again. Houchi's words barely left an impression on his tired brain.

He had a dream. In the dream, his lifelong plan to envelop the world in an illusion succeeded, but inside the world that should've been perfect there was even more death than in the one he so wanted to get away from. If reality had the potential for all kinds of evils and peace was simply a impossible goal; in the illusion all those possibilities were actualized and peace was not only impossible, but was completely against the core of its existence. This was the world he found himself in, lost and wondering what could've possibly gone wrong –he had disposed of Obito, and Naruto and Sasuke –even with their new powers, probably acquired from the Sage of Six Paths –had failed to stop him. So, why?

_Come to me. Come to me._

Again the voice resonated inside Madara. The dream changed to become pure darkness, and from it Madara could discern a figure, its back turned to him. Long white hair flowed down the figure's back, horn-like protrusions came out of its head. For a moment Madara was speechless, he could recognize the figure, but he still refused to accept what he was seeing. No, in this world, whatever it was, there was a possibility she could be 'alive'.

The figure turned around and it was indeed her. Ootsutsuki Kaguya was in front of him. She didn't speak, she simply stood there smiling. Despite her low height Madara felt small in front of her. She didn't say anything, but even so Madara could feel the aura of confidence that surrounded her, like she didn't fear anything and there was nothing she could not comprehend, including him. Suddenly she opened her arms and her expression changed into one of hostility. The eye on her forehead opened, and all of existence seemed to be contained in that eye.

_Come to me! _

Madara woke up again, this time sweating and with his heart almost jumping out of her chest. Now that his mind felt like his own again, he remembered the events of the day before. "The dream was real". His plan had truly failed. It was obvious to him that he wasn't the caster, and that was not all of it: he was also back to his self from before he was revived by that kid, Kabuto: a weak, pathetic old man.

Madara sluggishly got his body out of the bed and staggered his way towards the door. Finding his sixteen year-long plan thwarted in such a way was a great shock to him when first saw what the Dreamworld had become, but after resting and clearing his mind, he formed some semblance of a plan: gathering information –though Madara didn't know how much good it would to gather information from people who didn't really exist– and to find out what the dream he had before meant– he felt it was of great importance to putting his original plan back on track.

Madara opened the door and was instantly buffeted by the wind of a cold night. He stood there shivering for a moment and the walked out of the room –a little shabby makeshift wooden-floored room– to an equally shabby little town. The only street it had was illuminated by two rows of torches at each side. Houses and rooms, like the one Madara had been taken to were haphazardly spread around it.

The street wasn't empty. To and fro moved people carrying injured shinobi and more were coming from both sides of the street. A deep nauseating stench was in the air and Madara had been in enough battles to know what it was. Madara made his way through the tide of bleeding, screaming faces, barely illuminated in the yellow light from the torches and the sickly red of the moon –despairing because of a battle knew nothing about in the world he wanted to create to finally stop humans from giving in to their instincts.

Madara fought against the flow of people successfully for a short time, but then he felt himself swallowed by it and his body too weak to resist. Someone bumped against him and Madara fell down sitting on the ground before he could get hold of anything to stop his fall. The busy, and seemingly unending, mass of people didn't stop and Madara was completely ran over –legs, knees and even the carts used to transport the injured hit Madara's body all over and impeded him from getting up. He could only lay there, and at least shield his head with his arms.

Suddenly, even when he could still hear the bustling from all the people rushing around him, Madara didn't feel any more like a rock in a rowdy river. He didn't question why and started to get up, and that's when he noticed a small figure crouching, next to him, eyeing him with curiosity. It was Houchii's daughter, Hana, if memory served him right. Unlike they had done with him, the flow of people swerved around Hana. "No need to protect the old and useless, huh?", Madara thought. He no longer wanted to regret the state of his dreamworld, now he could only think about changing it. To get to the bottom of the whole mess and punish whoever was behind it.

"Mister, why are you here?", Hana asked calmly, as if she had just found Madara simply strolling outside and not curled on the floor and bruised. She was young, but Madara could tell she had seen worse than the flow of dead and injured shinobi flowing all around them. In his days of fighting against Senju, children who could be surrounded by death and not lose themselves were highly valued.

Madara stood and brushed off the dust from battered robe and started to walk off, back to the little hut. He had lost enough of his dignity for one night. Better to wait until the streets were calmer to gather information or, better yet: ask Jouichi. He liked to hear himself talk –it wouldn't be difficult to get him going. He felt stupid for not thinking about that before. Was the old age affecting him even more in the Dreamworld?

"Wait, mister!", Hana called. "My dad said to bring you to the meeting if you were awake , so you have to come or my dad will get angry with me. You know, my dad's nice, but when he gets angry…"

"Meeting?"

"That' all my dad told me. Anyway, this way, mister", Hana said before Madara could reply, and started to walk away, cutting across the crowd.

A meeting. It played right into Madara's plans, but he also recognized that he himself could be a topic of discussion. He had to be careful and, most importantly, leave this place as soon as possible. He felt that trusting anyone in this world was too dangerous.

He followed Hana trying not to think about the embarrassing fact that he needed a young girl to help him navigate through the crowd –or for anything else for that matter.

"We're moving in", Asagami said.

"Now, captain? Isn't it too early?", one of his men said.

"They won't wait, we can't either", replied Asagami looking at the village of small huts and tents (mostly for medical facilities) laid down before him. A simple patrolling mission through Alliance territory had unexpectedly turned into a 'rescue' mission of an old man. One he had tried kidnap before, but was interrupted from doing. Not worth the effort, even he was (or seemed to be) an Uchiha. Now it was an order, and as was his style he didn't question it and was ready to put his, and his men's, life on the line for it. "We move at dusk tomorrow".

There was another part to his mission: 'leave no survivors'.

Hana opened the door and Madara entered a dimly lit room with nothing but a round table in its midst. Sitting around were a group of ten stern looking men. Houchi was one of them. He stood up when he saw Madara come in.

"Thank you, Hana, you can leave us now", Houichi said. Hana first hesitated like she wanted to stay and then left, looking disappointed. "Have a sit, Uchiha Madara. Please."

And so Madara did. The men sitting around the table looked at him some with wonder, some with distrust and others with with a mixture of both (the Uchiha were one of the oldest, directly connected with the Ootsutsuki, and most respected clans after all), and there was another reason for the reaction to his presence he would learn later.

"This is the Uchiha you spoke of, then, Houichi?", one of the older looking men asked.

"Yes, elder", Houichi looked at Madara with a kind of excited, cornered-animal expression on his face that warned Madara. He had to find a way to leave the village as soon as possible. He didn't feel it would be easy.

"Welcome, Uchiha Madara. I'm Yamamoto, the head medical shinobi here", the man Houichi called elder said and bowed. "As you have probably already noticed this village is simply a resting place for injured soldiers of all villages, you may have noticed. We asked Houchi to bring you here because we were deeply curious about your presence here. Now, if you may, we would like to ask some questio…"

"Then, would you tell us, mister Uchiha, what are you doing here? Fugaku would never risk the sharingan being stolen", another man, younger, interrupted. "Not to mention, there's no way a lone old man would…"

"Kujo! Please", the old man said calmly, but harshly. "Forgive Kujo's tone, however, I do share his concerns, therefore, if you may give us an answer".

Through all this Madara simply kept quiet. He, of course, was not planning to reveal anything, much less such an important fact like how he had gotten to this world. There was much he didn't know himself, even if he did feel like revealing everything. And he wondered if these people could comprehend that they weren't real, but a very realistic product of Infinite Tsukuyomi. An unintended product brought about by someone else. _But they're too real_, he though.

Where to go from here? He couldn't trust anyone, _that_ much he knew. As though he was being called, he felt that he had to set for the Shinju. A good starting point to understand what had gone wrong. "I must apologize", Madara began, "but I cannot reveal what brought me here. Indeed, Fugaku is a very capable man, and if he could've known that my team and I…"

"Oh, there were others with you? We found you alone in the forest", said Kujo; regarding Madara distrustfully. Madara glared back at him and Kujo looked down. If only he knew that there was no power in the eyes of the old man sitting in front of him.

"The bodies were disposed of because, as the respectable elder said", a mocking tone creeping into his voice (he thought himself foolish to be arguing with a genjutsu projection), "the sharingan is too valuable to risk its secrets being stolen by other nations. I hope you understand why it's not something I wanted to talk about. Now", Madara stood up and looked authoritatively at the elders, "I would like I woud like to request to be taken to Konoha as soon as possible. I need to report to Fugaku immediately". He hoped he hadn't sounded too desperate.

"Of course, we would be pleased to oblige", Yamamoto said. "Also, we understand your circumstances so we won't inquire much more about your mission. However, we have our own circumstances, and cannot afford any men to escort you at he moment. If it were only a matter of enemy shinobi, it would be a simpler matter, but all kinds of creatures also roam the wilderness, as you probably noticed coming to this land".

_Creatures?_, thought Madara. "Yes, I understand", he said.

Yamamoto smiled at him, maybe noticing his hesitation. "So please give us at least until tomorrow at sundown. In the meantime Houichi will take care of everything you need". Yamamoto smiled again the smile Madara had already figured out as devoid of sincerity and humanity –nothing more than a mask.

Madara moved towards the door, but before he could leave Houichi said: "My daughter will take you back to your room –she's more dependable than her years lead on. Everyone's in such a rush outside that…", he looked at Madara's dirty robe, " it can be dangerous being by yourself if you don't know your way around the crowd".

Madara didn't respond and went out of the room, and back into the bustling, torch-lit street. As he stood in place facing human tide, suddenly the faces there morphed, and started to look to his eyes like his fellow clansmen after the battle that had sealed their fate against the Senju. Leading procession was his brother Izuna in a stretcher. Madara frantically ran towards him, and when he reached him he was taken aback: his brother's eyes were gone, in their place only darkness. "Why, brother?", whispered Izuna through lifeless lips.

A high-pitched voice cutting through the crowd brought him back to his senses. "Uchiha-sama!", and then Houichi's daughter materialized in front of him, waking Madara from his daze. "Wait, let me help you. Follow me". A body-flicker. _Lacking range, but otherwise above the level my own had been when I was a child. And the way she knew I was outside: a sensor, and not regular one given that there is no chakra to sense inside of me_, thought Madara looking at the small girl, all eyes and freckles, standing in front of him. Madara thought such an ability could proof useful to him, and using that as an excuse to keep face, followed her.

Next day not much happened. The sky was overcast and the day was dark. Madara stayed in his room –not just because he was, essentially in the enemy camp, but also because he felt extremely tired– and did not request Houichi's help at all. He did look out the window to the only street in the 'town'– it was still as busy as it was in the night, though now the terrible state of the injured being transported was more apparent.

His only visitor was Hana, bringing him his meals, which Madara would've refused as well if his body allowed him to. She looked at him with a strangely knowing look that made Madara wonder if she could know something about him. He chalked up such thoughts to his exhaustion and continued to wait for his chance, though he didn't know what that chance could possibly be or when it would come… until, nearing the dusk, when the sun was going down and the ominous, blood red moon was appearing in the sky, Hana asked him a question that completely stunned him as she laid a tray with a nondescript soup and hard-looking piece of bread on the table next to Madara's bed.

"You're not from here, aren't you?", she stood there looking at him, confused, the she took startled and took a few steps back. "Or is it… that you're a ghost, mister?"

There was something comical, Madara thought, about being called a ghost by an illusion, but now his suspicions were confirmed: there was something special about her, something that could maybe…

Hana suddenly screamed. "Something bad is coming, I have to tell my dad!", and ran out of the room. Just as she closed the door a loud crashing sound came from outside. _An explosion _–which was then followed by many others. Madara sat his bed. This was his chance –no matter how tired he was, the confusion caused by the battle was his, probably, only chance to escape this place. Little did he know he was the target of the attack.

He staggered sluggishly out of the room, and saw that there was already no 'town'– it was all flat on the ground and what was still standing was burning. Everyone was screaming and running in every direction, but they didn't far before they were caught by strange shinning blue light orbs that made them disappear when they touched them. Madara simply stood in place, knowing that if he moved even just an inch, he would become a victim of that ninjutsu he'd never seen before.

"There you are! We were having so much fun, we forgot about you for a second. Well, doesn't matter", said a voice coming from above. Madara looked towards where the voice was coming, and on the rooftop of the room stood Asagami, dark eyes reflecting the moonlight. "You're coming with us". He swept down rapidly, and easily grabbed Madara, slinging him over his shoulder. Back in the real world he would've been able to dodge Asagami, but in this world, that was only a dream.

Asagami took him outside of the small make-shift town, where the rest of his team was.

"Are you done, Fujio?", asked Asagami to a man Madara couldn't see from his position on Asagami's shoulder.

"Yes, no survivors are left, sir", an emotionless deep voiced replied.

"And that child?",

"She's an interesting one. She could sense us, and tried to defend a man. Probably her father. Gave some trouble –she could be useful… with the proper training", another man he couldn't see. He had a quiet voice.

"Hmmm… Anything else?"

"Yes, sir", the man with the deep voice again. "We spotted ninja from Kumo".

Asagami laughed. "Well, see, knowing that village, they were here to buy you", he shook Madara. "We were just in time, then. If that is all, then were going. Fujio!"

"Yes, sir". Fujio made the hand seal of the ram, and suddenly the 'town' (what was left of it) was completely enveloped in blue light. "Release!", exclaimed Fujio and the blue light vanished, and in its place was… nothing. The 'town' was gone as if it had never existed. Fujio fell to his knees, gasping.

"Interesting isn't it, Ninshuu. Created to unite people and all that. Naïve. We give it better uses. You have something like it on your side, right?", said Asagami casually. Madara's mind was reeling, trying to make sense of what Asagami had just said, so he couldn't reply. "Huh? What's that? Did you say something? Oh, I know, 'where are we going?', right? Yes, yes. You can feel it, can't you? The Tree. That's where we're going".

Asagami's team moved to the forest, and that was when Madara lost consciousness.


End file.
